


Marinette's Arrow

by marichatting



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: M/M, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, also: marc and marinette are brotp honestly, but my fics are never that great when i start writing for a new ship, i looove the idea of them being good friends and marc coming out of his shell around her, i'll get better as i write more of them and get used to writing for them, not my best work, this is kinda meh tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 14:10:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marichatting/pseuds/marichatting
Summary: Marinette plays matchmaker for Marc and Nathaniel.





	Marinette's Arrow

**Author's Note:**

> No one can seem to agree on a ship name for them, but I like Marthaniel, so I'm just going to use that unless the fandom decides on something else.

Marinette liked to think that she was good at reading people- especially when it came to crushes.

Some people were good at hiding their crushes, but even they couldn't hide them from Marinette.

Even Alya, who acted almost exactly the same way around Nino as she did around everyone else, had her tells: she had this tendency to twirl the ends of her hair around her fingertips and stare at him a lot when he spoke. She'd brushed it off when Marinette first mentioned it to her ("looking at people when they speak is just common courtesy, Mari"), but when Nino kissed her under the mistletoe when they were fourteen, Alya had blushed bright red and her eyes had gone wide. The next day, Marinette gave her friend a knowing smirk when she noticed her holding hands with the boy, but Alya had scowled at her and muttered, "don't say a word."

So, when she realized that Marc and Nathaniel were crushing on each other,  _obviously_ she had to do something about it.

She had been in the art room with them one day when she noticed their behavior. They were working on their comics together, and Marc kept tripping over his own words- and literally tripping over physical objects- and blushing madly when the blue-eyed boy looked at him. Nath, on the other hand, was subtler; his eyes kept lingering on Marc, and his cheeks turned pink every time the other boy laughed.

She wanted them to get together and be happy, but she knew it would never happen without help. She loved those boys, but they were both completely oblivious. _Ridiculously_ oblivious. She was just glad _she_ wasn’t that oblivious.

“Hey, Marc,” she said the next day when the two of them were alone in the art classroom together.

“Oh, hey, Marinette,” he said with a smile as he sharpened his pencil.

“So…” she said slowly. “Nathaniel’s pretty cute, huh?”

Marc dropped his pencil, his eyes going wide and his face turning bright red. “W- what?!”

She smiled innocently at him. “Nathaniel. He’s pretty cute, isn’t he?”

Marc blushed furiously and turned away from her, picking up his dropped pencil. “Um, I- I guess…”

“I think you two would make a pretty cute couple,” she said.

“What?!” Marc spun back around, his green eyes panicked. “Why would you think that?!”

Marinette shrugged. “I just think you guys would be cute together.”

“W- well, I don’t even like him like that, so…” Marc trailed off as Marinette raised her eyebrows skeptically. He gave a resigned sigh. “Is it that obvious?”

“Not to Nate,” she assured him. “I’m sure he doesn’t know- but _I_ do, and I think you should go for it.”

Marc’s eyes went wide in shock. “G- go for it?! I can’t do that!”

“Why not?” Marinette asked. “I mean, you just have to go up to him and say, ‘Nathaniel, I like you.’ What’s the worst that could happen?”

Marc scowled. “I don’t think you really have the right to say that, considering the way you act around Adrien.”

Marinette’s cheeks turned pink and she crossed her arms with a huff. “That’s different.”

“How is it different?”

“Adrien doesn’t like me back.”

Marc froze. “Y- you… you think Nath l- likes me?”

“Totally! I think if you just tell him you like him, he’ll-“

“No,” Marc said, shaking his head. “I’m not gonna do that. I _can’t.”_

“Sure you can!”

“B- but Nath doesn’t like me like that.”

Marinette put a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile. “Marc, I know you two have become good friends, but you haven’t known him as long as I have. I’ve known him for years. I _know_ when Nathaniel has a crush.”

Marc shook his head. “No. There’s no way that Nath has a c- crush on me. I won’t do it.”

***

The next day, Marinette approached Nathaniel.

In hindsight, she really should have gone to him first. She knew that Marc was too shy to confess his feelings to his crush, so really, it was pointless to go to him rather than the redhead. Nathaniel was shy, too, but not as much so as Marc.

“Hey, Nate,” she greeted him before class, sitting down next to him at his desk.

“Hi, Marinette,” he responded, looking up from his sketchbook.

“What are you drawing?” she asked, looking at his drawing.

“Oh, um-“ Nathaniel tried to move his sketchbook out of her line of vision, but he wasn’t fast enough.

“You’re drawing Marc?” she asked with a smile.

His cheeks turned red. “Um- well, I- I- yes. Please don’t tell him.”

“I won’t,” she assured him. “Hey, speaking of Marc… don’t you think you two would make a cute couple?”

Nathaniel’s eyes went wide. “What?!”

“Oh, come _on,_ Nate,” she said with a friendly smile. “I see the way you look at him. I think you should ask him out.”

Nathaniel blushed. “I- why would you- I don’t like Marc like that.”

Marinette quirked an eyebrow and glanced at his sketchbook. Nathaniel’s cheeks turned darker, and he groaned.

“Okay, so maybe I _do_ have a _tiny_ crush on him,” he admitted. “But it doesn’t matter because _he_ doesn’t like _me.”_

“You don’t know that,” Marinette said. “I think you should definitely tell him you like him. If you ask him out, I’m sure he’ll say yes.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “Thanks for trying to help, Marinette, but I can’t do that.”

***

In further hindsight, Marinette should have known that _both_ of those boys were too adorably dumb and oblivious to get anything done by themselves.

So, it was up to her.

She waited a couple of days after she tried to get them together to try to lower suspicion. Then, she invited each of them to go see a movie with her.

“Alya’s already seen it, but I don’t want to go alone, and it seems like something you would like,” she explained to both of them separately. “Do you want to go with me?”

Both of them agreed to go. Neither knew that they would not, in fact, be seeing the movie with Marinette; they would actually be seeing it with their crush.

***

Marc met her at the movie theater first.

“Are you ready to go in?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Marinette said. “We have to wait for Nate.”

Marc looked like he was about to have a heart attack. “Wait for- _Nathaniel is coming?”_

“Yep,” she responded casually, turning to look at him with innocent eyes. “Oh, sorry, did I forget to tell you that?”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you are _evil.”_

“Oh, look, he’s here,” she said, ignoring Marc’s words and pointing cheerfully at Nathaniel, who was climbing out of his mom’s car. “Hey, Nate!”

He turned around and waved, then froze in his tracks when he noticed Marc.

“Oh, um- hi, Marc,” he said awkwardly as he approached them. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“It would appear that Marinette didn’t give either of us all the details,” Marc responded with a pointed look at the pigtailed girl.

She shrugged. “Sorry, I guess I forgot. You guys know me and how forgetful I am!”

They went inside and found their theater, and Marinette made sure that Nathaniel and Marc were sitting next to each other.

As the lights were going down just before the movie started, Marinette snapped her fingers as if she had suddenly remembered something. “Oh, I almost forgot! I don’t have time to watch a movie today! Sorry, gotta go! See you guys at school!” she whispered to the boys before quickly exiting the theater without any further explanation, despite their whispered protests.

After a few minutes, she silently crept back into the theater, keeping an eye on the boys to make sure they didn’t see her as she found a different seat a few rows behind them.

Marinette had intentionally chosen a romantic movie in the hopes of getting them in the mood for romantic confessions. It was a longshot, she knew, but she still had hope.

After the movie ended, she quickly ducked behind the seats in her row to make sure they wouldn’t see her as they left the theater. This irritated a few people who were trying to get out of the row, but it was for the greater good.

As they left the theater, she crept behind them, hiding behind columns and potted plants to eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Y’know,” Nathaniel said slowly. “I think Marinette intentionally tricked us into seeing a romantic movie together because she- um- thinks we’d be a good couple.”

She could see both boys blushing and avoiding each other’s eyes.

“Yeah,” Marc agreed. “She- um- told me the other day that we would look cute together.”

Nathaniel let out a forced-sounding laugh as they walked outside. “She told me I should… ask you out. She was acting so sure that you would say yes if I did- I… I think she thinks you like me, or something. Isn’t that crazy?”

Marc was silent for a moment. “I don’t think it’s… _so_ crazy.”

Nathaniel stopped and looked at him. “It… it’s not?”

Marc blushed furiously and bit his lower lip. “I- I mean, if you _were_ to a- ask me out, I- I might say y- yes.”

Marinette peered out at them from behind a trash can. Both boys’ cheeks were dark red.

“Well… how ‘bout it, then?” Nathaniel asked softly.

“W- what?”

“Do- um- do you want to go out with me?” the redhead said quickly.

Marc’s eyes went wide, and he nodded rapidly.

Marinette smiled to herself. She felt like Cupid right now.

***

A week later, Marinette was with Alya when they noticed Nathaniel holding hands with Marc in the hallway.

“Woah,” Alya said. “I didn’t know those two were together. Did you know about this?”

Marinette smiled fondly at the two boys. “I knew they had a date planned.”

“Wow,” Alya said. “That’s a couple I didn’t really expect. I didn’t even know Nath was into guys. How did they get together?”

Marinette grinned. “Let’s just say they were struck by Marinette’s arrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment with feedback and/or make a request! Thanks!
> 
> -Emma
> 
> Find me on Tumblr: [squishychatnoir ](http://squishychatnoir.tumblr.com)


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